Enterprises may import, produce, use, sell, or ship substances that pose environmental and/or biological hazards during the course of business. In a attempt to avoid, reduce, or minimize exposure to these chemicals, government agencies have developed guidelines for handling such chemicals. For example, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new European Union regulatory framework for handling hazardous chemicals, COM (2003) 644. Under this example current regulation, enterprises that handle more than one ton of a hazardous chemical substance per year must register with a central database. The aims of the proposed new regulation are to improve the protection of human health and the environment, while maintaining the competitiveness. More specifically, some legislation attempts to give greater responsibility to industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances.
Other existing and proposed regulation may affect more companies by not distinguishing “old” and “new” chemicals, but applying to almost all chemical substances. In other words, it does not apply just to producers and/or companies placing chemicals on the market, but more of the downstream process (excluding consumers though): the downstream user is treated similar to importers or manufacturers of a substance if he uses the substance in a way not already registered by his supplier.